17. The Bronte Sisters
Charlotte, Emily and Anne Bronte published a collection of poetry “Poems by Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell” their male pseudonyms in 1846. They would later use the aliases for other celebrated works.
The following year Emily Bronte would publish “Wuthering Heights” under her pen name, Ellis Bell, and Charlotte Bronte would use her pen name to release “Jane Eyre.” Anne used Acton Bell for her “Agnes Grey.” All are considered classic forms of literature even to this day.
The reasons why the sisters used pen names for the poems and novels were explained more than 50 years later. Charlotte wrote the explanation in a preface for the 1910 edition of “Wuthering Heights.” Emily had died in 1848.
“… while we did not like to declare ourselves women, because – without all that time suspecting that our mode of writing and thinking was not what is called ‘feminine’ – we had a vague impression that authoresses are liable to be looked on with prejudice,” Charlotte wrote.
